And it's suddenly Friday again

I think I will try to pass along some quick, random observations and thoughts I've had lately. It should be fun.

Elevator culture. Usually, the ride is deathly quiet. Sometimes people will be joking around or merely discussing work, but usually not in a normally loud voice. The elevators here operate more manually than in the US; this means the open/close buttons are much more responsive and they get used a lot. One person will usually take it upon themselves to operate the doors. When the elevator stops for a floor, even for one person, the operator will likely push the close button after they've stepped on or off to get moving along faster than if the elevator doors had waited and then shut. It also looks like when you hold the open button - even for one person - you will always get a slight nod of appreciation from them, even though the elevator's wait time would have been sufficient for them to exit.

Fashion. Much like in the US, there seems to be a trend in what I'd call "fake" shirts. The US specializes in selling shirts that have fake names, establishments, or dates; sometimes for the purpose of being clever with puns, but more often to appear retro (eg. "Tiki Bob's 3rd annual Surf-off 1978"). Chances are, the person wearing the shirt wasn't even conceived then, and it certainly didn't take 30 years to ship the shirt from the sweatshop in China. Japan has something similar, but the goal isn't to be retro as much as it is to bemuddle any native speakers of the language the shirt has printed on it. English was the traditional target of this unintentional butchering (hence becoming what we know as "Engrish"). Lately there has been a big surge in French, and I wouldn't bet on it being any more intelligible. If I were to type it out, you still wouldn't believe me, so I recommend searching around for "engrish" - you won't be disappointed.

Also in the fashion department, you can get away with wearing anything in public. Maybe it's a reflex from the dullness of wearing school or work uniforms for so long, but I'm happy to see such a variety of style whenever I'm strolling Tokyo. No, this isn't about cosplay, but that certainly qualifies - people just tend to be a lot more daring to push the limit of what's wearable. It could be that nobody would dare to bring it up if they thought it was goofy - not in public, not by a stranger. So what's there to lose? Strike a pose.

Speaking of this, last weekend my eyes caught a rare sight near the train station: a group of maybe 8 Japanese males donning knee-length sports jerseys, equally baggy jeans, sporting backwards ball caps and large metal chains. I had to stop my bike and stare just to make sure I wasn't just hallucinating (hey, it happens now and then). Even though I carry my camera around with me at all times, I'm not to keen on snapping shots of others, even if they're in public - especially if the intent is to post the pictures online. Sorry, I hope the description will suffice. What's strangest to me is just where they found the clothing. I know that American culture (and subsequently, clothing) is a big import here, but I don't recall noticing any FUBU stores. Yet, if there's a niche to fill, someone, somewhere will do it.

Completely unrelated: I was in the bathroom at work and music was playing overhead. I couldn't figure it out right away because, much like the karaoke, it's a simpler rendition of the original score by some poor, deaf bastard they gave a job and keyboard to out of pity. Then it dawned on me, and the toilet was suddenly a sadder and lonelier place than normal. As it turned out, the tune was "Amazing Grace" and I spent the next minute wondering if I'd actually heard that song played outside of a funeral before. I didn't stick around long enough to hear if there was another track or if it would keep looping.